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Culture

‘Disclosure Day’ Doesn’t Discount Belief

For over half a century, director Steven Spielberg has dramatized the advent of the extraordinary as either a transformative blessing or a death-dealing curse. In one class of film, humans flee from unimaginable threats they lack the means to resist. Giant sharks, dinosaurs, Nazis, and invaders from Mars terrorize the impotent masses. Rescue arrives only Read more. The post ‘Disclosure Day’ Doesn’t Discount Belief appeared first on Christianity Today

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Economy

How might changes in the labor market and oil prices affect our economy and daily lives?

The 1970s oil-shock playbook needs an update: The inflation costs remain, but the employment risks appear far smaller than they did 50 years ago. Why it matters: As the Iran war continues, there are early signs of renewed strength in the labor market. If energy disruptions pose less of a risk to jobs, the challenge for central banks shifts from managing stagflation risks to guarding against renewed price pressures. That's the takeaway from new Federal Reserve Bank of Boston research that finds an oil shock the size of what the Iran war has produced would push inflation materially higher while having essentially no effect on national employment. What they're saying: "The U.S. economy's vulnerability to oil shocks has not been eliminated, but rather reconfigured," economists wrote in the report. "Oil shocks may now pose less of a challenge for monetary policy, allowing policymakers to focus more on the greater risk to inflation." Driving the news: The researchers estimate that the U.S.-Iran conflict generated a 33% oil price shock — a magnitude that is historically significant, though not unprecedented. The U.S. economy is now structured differently than past energy crises, allowing it to absorb a shock of that magnitude with far less damage to national employment.But with a smaller hit to growth and employment, there is less downward pressure on prices to counteract rising energy costs.The Boston Fed estimates that if an oil disruption like today's hit during the mid-1970s, it would lift the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index by 2.2 percentage points and reduce national employment by 1.8 percentage point. What to watch: The oil shock is estimated to create relative winners and losers across the country, with oil-producing states faring better than oil-importing regions — differences that can leave an economic mark for as long as two years after the initial hit. The Boston Fed estimates that employment growth in Texas would be roughly 1.7 percentage point h

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Politics

Changing the Calculus of Power

Changing the Calculus of Power During morning rush hour in Chicago last week, ICE agents crashed into a bystander’s car while trying to detain a Venezuelan migrant. After tackling the screaming, shirtless man to the ground and handcuffing him, agents tased him, according to a local reporter and other witnesses on the scene. Then they used the taser and pepper spray to threaten bystanders who had gathered and started blowing whistles. In the chaos, an agent dropped a loaded magazine in the str...

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Culture

Second Century Associates

Second Century Associates Support the Second Century of Commonweal Drawing upon the Catholic intellectual tradition, Commonweal is a space where people of all faiths and none can find meaning, hope, and human connection. We present ideas in a spirit of justice, charity, and critical intelligence, and we offer a forum where writers from many backgrounds can engage the issues of the day with depth and seriousness. From theologians and philosophers to political analysts, economists, cultural cri...

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Geopolitics

Toward a Civilization of Love

Toward a Civilization of Love Over the past decade, civilizational discourse has become a staple of global political thought. This discourse presents nations like India, Russia, and, now, the United States as sacred bearers of a unique historical and cultural heritage. The term also evokes colonial echoes of a “civilizing” mission, positing one people as superior to others it encounters. Given historical work like Mike Davis’s Late Victorian Holocausts, this dimension of civilizational discou...

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